Sunday, June 11, 2017

100-year-old Colombo crime family underboss John Franzese is scheduled for release on June 25.

"Sonny,"
as he is known in New York gangland circles, is at the Federal Medical
Center in Devens, Massachusetts finishing up an 8-year sentence for
racketeering.

Federal Medical Center Devens, where John Franzese, 100, will be released June 25.

Franzese's
attorneys ignored calls and emails from the ABC7 I-Team concerning his
impending release, his health and his future plans into his next
century.

However, the one-time mob brute may not be overly aware
of his change in surroundings anyway. He is said to be blind, deaf, and
in need of a wheelchair. That also means he is unlikely to return to his
high post atop one of New York's most feared Mafia families.

In
addition to being the oldest guy in the clink, Franzese is also the
oldest Mafiosi ever locked up. By comparison, Chicago Outfit bosses
currently behind bars are spring chickens. Mobster Joey "the Clown"
Lombardo holds the current title at 88 and is in for life.

Underboss James "Little Jimmy" Marcello is 73, also on a federal life sentence.

Joey "the Clown" Lombardo in his younger days.

When
Franzese is cut loose, there will be no other centenarian behind bars
in the federal system. The next-oldest inmate is Salvatore Sparacio, 95,
according to Justin Long, spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of
Prisons in Washington.

At 95, Salvatore "Shotsie" Sparacio will soon be the oldest federal prisoner in U.S.

Sparacio
is also a mob boss, but from Philadelphia. He is scheduled for release
before reaching age 100, so Franzese's record will remain intact for
now.

Franzese was born in Naples, Italy in 1917. That was the
year the U.S. entered World War 1 and the U.S. president was Woodrow
Wilson. Al Capone hadn't even moved to Chicago yet.

John "Sonny" Franzese is suspected in so many murders he couldn't keep track of all of them, according to investigators.

But the Franzese family saga is not one for the Hallmark Channel.

It
is a long-life story laced with bank robberies and murders, payoffs and
cover-ups; all the favorite tools and techniques of organized crime.
The FBI once labeled him as "super-Dillinger," after the Depression-era
gangster John Dillinger who was cut down by federal agents outside
Chicago's Biograph Theatre.

In 1942 he was released from the U.S.
Army because of "homicidal tendencies" according to federal
investigators. Evidence in one of his criminal trials suggested he may
have murdered as many as 50 people during his career as a Mafia
enforcer.

Investigators say he would paint the tips of his fingers with nail polish to avoid leaving prints at crime scenes.

New
York mobologists say that Franzese tried to keep track of his homicidal
conquests but there were so many he lost count. Once he was overheard
on FBI tapes discussing the chopping up of victims in a backyard kiddie
pool and then drying out the pieces in his microwave.

John Franzese during his 2010 racketeering trial.

Franzese's
own son and namesake testified against him at his last trial in 2010.
John Franzese, Jr. appeared for the government and helped to convince
jurors that his father was not the ailing old man who appeared in court.
Once during his son's testimony Sonny Franzese appeared to fall
asleep-prompting some to refer to him as the "Nodfather."

Colombo Mafia family underboss John "Sonny" Franzese (left) and his son John, Jr. (right) in FBI surveillance photo.

A
year ago, when the geriatric mobster wanted early release from prison
on "compassionate" grounds, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn found no such
mercy. Authorities ignored his hand-written note claiming he had "little
time left in my life" and that he wanted to spend it with his eight
children, 18 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Franzese was
made to finish his sentence for shaking down strip clubs and a pizzeria.

The
most stunning fact about Franzese may simply be that he has survived so
many decades in mobdom, considering that he possesses so many
underworld secrets.

Many of his much younger counterparts have
preceded him in death, at the hands of other gangsters. From Joey Gallo,
Paul Castellano, Albert Anastasia and Carmine Galante in New York to
more than 1100 mob murder victims in Chicago since 1919. And of course
John Gotti who died in prison of poor health at age 61.

5 comments:

Sonny we love u baby. I use to walk around manhattan and the night clubs I couldn't get into because they hand picked who they let in back in those days. So I would walk to the front slip the guy a 50 and tell him sonny sent me over. The guy would remove the rope and let me walk right in. God bless u sonny. Whack one more guy before ur gone.